Microsoft dropped a bombshell yesterday with the announcement of a brand new addition to the Surface line-up, the Surface Book. The screen is detachable and becomes a tablet with a clipboard feel while on the go. Alongside it is an i5 or i7 Skylake processor, depending on user preference, up to 16GB of RAM and as much as a terabyte of storage space.
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The new laptop’s keyboard is also nothing to laugh at: Microsoft hasn’t simply designed a high-powered tablet and slapped a keyboard on to offer a laptop experience.
At a hardware event in New York, Microsoft unveiled the hotly anticipated Lumia 950, Lumia 950XL and Lumia 550. Myerson said: “I think those (Apple) customers should choose Windows”.
Microsoft for the first time appears capable of achieving that, Milanesi said. There’s the slick new Surface Pro 4, the previously mentioned $3,000 HoloLens development kit and a new version of the Microsoft Band that’s now sleeker, packed with a barometer and more expensive at $250.
The Surface Pro 3 and the Surface Pro 4 are same in dimensions but differ in thickness. It’s fully expected that Microsoft will start running other advertisements in the near future that highlight other aspects of the device as the company works to build momentum for the release which is happening on October 26th.
The New Daily recently covered the topic when discussing Apple’s new iPad Pro and the death knell it tolls for the laptop. “That’s what the goal of the Surface project from the start, and the Surface 4 does a wonderful job of fulfilling that mission”, Jeremy Kaplan, editor-in-chief of Digital Trends, affirmed.
The devices come from different segments and Microsoft’s Panos Panay took his own sweet time to show off how Microsoft has not given up on hardware just yet. In the most recent quarter, revenue from tablets and accessories more than doubled from a year ago to $888 million. Pre-order the new Microsoft phablet between today and November 29th from the retailer, and receive a free Display Dock. Over the summer, the company wrote down $8.4 billion for the value of Nokia’s phone business, which it bought just a year earlier.
We officially learned the specs behind Microsoft’s Lumia 950 and Lumia 950 XL smartphones, which the company accidentally leaked on its online store the week before the event. Unlike Apple, and more like Alphabet (nee Google), Microsoft was going to allow third-party manufacturers – such as HTC and Samsung – to manufacture models with the operating system in an attempt to spur adoption. But Lenovo isn’t the target of Microsoft’s effort. This should help out a lot in tablet mode, where you’ll hold the screen closer to your eyes.
However, the Surface range has never been more than adequate as a laptop. It will be available for $249 (approximately Rs 17,000).
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Living up to their promise to replace laptops, these tablets can run any traditional Windows program, including Office, iTunes and Photoshop.
